Tag Archives: preventative coping for dancer anxiety

dancehealthier, on this fine Sunday, wants to present a question to you? As dancers, students, teachers, fans – do you feel there is enough dance research being done?

If your answer to the question was No, than you are correct! One strong indicator of this truth is that much of the limited dance research journals start with a sentence similar to this one. “Performance anxiety research abounds in sport psychology, yet has been relatively sparse in dance” (Walter lJ, 2010). dancehealthieradvocates for further research, education and greater concentration of material. Honestly, internationally there are way too many talented athletic aspiring and/or professional dancers that deserve the proper amount of research so we can further educate the best preventative, coping, and evaluative methods. There is need for growth. dancehealthier is hopeful!

For now, dancehealthierfeels that it is important to spread the word on the current research out there. The National Institute of Health published an article titled, “Performance anxiety experiences of professional ballet dancers: the importance of control” by Walker IJ, Nordin-Bates SM. The study interviews 15 elite dancers representing all ranks of one company to evaluate qualitative data on ballet dancers’ experiences of performance anxiety in relation to: 1. symptom type, intensity, and directional interpretation; 2. experience level (including company rank); and 3. self-confidence and psychological skills. Results showed that cognitive anxiety was more dominant than somatic anxiety. Interestingly, a certain level/amount of somatic anxiety (butterflies in the stomach) were interpreted as facilitative or beneficial to performance. The highest amount of anxiety was felt and experienced by principal dancers vs. corps de ballet members. When asked what caused most of the inflicted anxiety, the idea of not being in control of the performance dominated (speed of music, partner falter, plainly the idea of “anything can happen”, etc.) As a result of the study, “dancers may benefit from education about anxiety symptoms and their interpretation, in addition to psychological skills training incorporating cognitive restructuring strategies and problem-focussed coping to help increase their feelings of being in control” (Walter lJ, 2010.)